grum’s world trip – month #4 report

It’s a new year and I’m currently in my fifth month of living outside of Australia!

I was thinking the other day and realised its been 555 days since I moved out of the last place that I could truly call my ‘home’. Sure, I’ve lived in many places since then but I never really settled in as I knew that I was going to pack up and leave with my Dinos in a matter of time. Over the next month I’ll be bouncing through 5 different cities in 3 different countries. Its certainly going to be a busy month!

Let’s see how I went over the previous month (26/11/2014 – 26/12/2014):

Goal #1 : Travel further than 35,000kms

This is the last month that I’ll be living in Thailand for a while. Not too sure if I’ll be returning to Chiang Mai but I’ll definitely be heading back to Bangkok sometime in the future and hang around for a bit. Perhaps I’ll hit-up south Thailand for a few weeks in late 2015? Chiang Mai was definitely a learning experience but I think I’ve learned as much as I can and there isn’t much the city can offer me. Its cheap but also boring. Time to move on.

As you can see in the above graph, I’m still above my rolling target which is the blue line. The red line is a tally of my actual distance traveled and in January it’ll substantially jump. In a week from now I’ll be heading back to Australia for a bit, not too sure how long for but I’ll be settling down in Hobart for at least a month or two. Before I land in Tasmania I’ll be making a few stop-overs. When I was planning my trip to Hobart I quickly realised that it would be a heckuvalot cheaper to make a few stops on the way. Yep, its cheaper to fly to Kuala Lumpur, stay for a week, fly to Bali, stay for another week, fly to Perth, stay for yet another week and then fly to Hobart via Melbourne than it is to fly to Hobart direct. Believe it or not it was $150 cheaper and that includes flights, accommodation, taxes, food and other miscellaneous amounts. Although I did cheat for Perth, I’m staying with friends – If I had booked a hotel room, it would be have been more expensive than the whole trip combined.

Goal #2 : Climb a mountain peak higher than 1,700m above sea level

Eh… geez, I suck at this goal. I still haven’t left the immediate vicinity yet there is a mountain calling my name at least an hour or two from my front door. Honestly, I can see the peek from my balcony. If I don’t climb this mountain in the next few days, I won’t be near any large climbs for at least another 3 months. Lazy!

Goal #4 : End the year with a positive flow of income generated on the road whilst living $50 a day

I wrapped up a couple of contracts at the start of the month so the amount of work I had up my sleeve substantially dropped and thanks partly to the holiday period (mostly to my laziness), I haven’t taken any on new jobs and work will stop whilst I bounce from Thailand to Malaysia to Indonesia and around Australia next month. This whole freelancing thing is a lot more frustrating on the road than expected. My main issue is that I take on a handful of small jobs which usually was fine when I was based in one spot for a while but when you’re traveling, acquiring more small jobs is tiresome. I’ll focus on nabbing up some longer contracts once I settle down in Hobart.

Spending-wise, I strangely am still UNDER my $50 a month goal. Even with purchasing flights and accommodation I only spent $33.07 a day for the last month, taking my monthly average to $44.49. I’m fairly sure that my daily spend will skyrocket once I hit Australia so I may not include the Aussie stay in my goals. My rules, I can change them if I want ;)

Goal #5 : Keep healthy and achieve 4 million steps for the year

Yikes! My daily step count has dropped substantially since I lost my fitbit. I’ve been using a pedometer but the figures are all wrong. Either my fitbit had been over-recording or the $2 pedometer has been under-recording. I guess I’ll be buying a new toy when I return to Australia. Smart pedometers are way too expensive here and getting one sent is too complicated. Even with the weird numbers the end goal isn’t too far away – I’ll just need to take longer trips. The frustrating thing is that Chiang Mai isn’t a city that is nice to walk in. Sidewalks are death traps and there are no parks. The Thai seem to hate hiking with all the hiking trails overgrown and full of things that want to eat you. I’ll be in Bali and Kuala Lumpur for a week at a time and won’t be dong too much resting so those days I’ll be pounding the pavement as much as possible. Once I’m back in Australia it’ll be a lot easier to get back into the swing of things.

Final thoughts

I’m still rather annoyed with the cashflow situation so I’ve been researching alternative options. One thing I can say for certain though is that I am not going to return to Australia to settle down. At least not in the near future. Slow travel is a lot more compatible with me as a person and I don’t see any benefits of returning to Australia permanently. I only wish that I could figure out a way to become a resident in another country that is more compatible to this lifestyle. Australia wants me to be heavily taxed for choosing to live outside its borders. The system really does suck and it feels like I’m being penalised for choosing to live a simpler life. Yes, cost of living is cheaper where I am today but I don’t exactly want to stay in Thailand for the rest of my life. Europe and America is calling me and I’d like to answer before its too late. Sure, I could do it the proper way and get a traditional sponsored job, but whats the fun in that? Ah well, this lifestyle is still relatively new and countries like Estonia are actively trying to lure in foreigners with new reforms so who knows what 2015 brings?

grum
grum is not only the founder of pantless.me/dia, he is also an Aussie Writer, Broadcaster, Photographer, Film Maker and all round swell guy. He enjoys long walks on the beach, glazed donuts, kittens doing cute things and creating content on the Internet.